clause

See also: Clause

English

Etymology

From Middle English clause, claus, borrowed from Old French clause, from Medieval Latin clausa (Latin diminutive clausula (“close, end; a clause, close of a period”)), from Latin clausus, past participle of claudere (“to shut, close”). See close, its doublet.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /klɔːz/
• (US) IPA^(key): /klɔz/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /klɑz/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: claws
• Rhymes: -ɔːz

Noun

clause (plural clauses)

1. (grammar) A verb, its necessary grammatical arguments, and any adjuncts affecting them.
2. (grammar) A verb along with its subject and their modifiers. If a clause provides a complete thought on its own, then it is an independent (superordinate) clause; otherwise, it is (subordinate) dependent.
   • 1988, Andrew Radford, chapter 6, in Transformational grammar: a first course, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, page 300:

     However, Coordination facts seem to undermine this hasty conclusion: thus, consider the following:
     (43)      [Your sister could go to College], but [would she get a degree?]
     The second (italicised) conjunct is a Clause containing an inverted Auxiliary, would. Given our earlier assumptions that inverted Auxiliaries are in C, and that C is a constituent of S-bar, it follows that the italicised Clause in (43) must be an S-bar. But our familiar constraint on Coordination tells us that only constituents belonging to the same Category can be conjoined. Since the second Clause in (43) is clearly an S-bar, then it follows that the first Clause must also be an S-bar — one in which the C(omplementiser) position has been left empty.

3. (law) A separate part of a contract, a will or another legal document.
   • 1951 April, “Notes and News: North Fife Line, Scotland”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, page 281:

     Mr. Waller adds that when the railway was authorised in 1897, one of the clauses of the Act authorising the transfer of the line to the North British Railway provided that that company should work it in perpetuity, and it was this clause that caused the interim interdict to be granted.

Usage notes

• In “When it got dark, they went back into the house”, “When it got dark” is a dependent clause within the complete sentence. The independent clause “they went back into the house” could stand alone as a sentence, whereas the dependent clause could not.

Hyponyms

types of grammatical clauses

• adjective clause
• adverbial clause
• appositive clause
• comment clause
• comparative clause
• concessive clause
• conditional clause
• conditional mood
• coordinate clause
• defining relative clause
• dependent clause
• finite clause
• hush clause
• if clause
• independent clause
• main clause
• nominal clause
• nondefining relative clause
• non-finite clause
• noun clause
• object clause
• relative clause
• restrictive clause
• subclause
• subordinate clause
• superordinate clause
• verbless clause
• vice clause

 

part of a legal document

• noncompete clause

 

Derived terms

grammatical terms

• 3-clause
• clausal
• clause element
• clause function
• subclause

 

other terms (unsorted, may also contain grammatical terms)

• acceleration clause
• attestation clause
• break clause
• choice of forum clause
• clausehood
• clauselike
• cognovit clause
• conscience clause
• definite clause
• derogatory clause
• escalator clause
• escape clause
• establishment clause
• exit clause
• final clause
• forum clause
• forum selection clause
• free-exercise clause
• get-out clause
• grandfather clause
• guillotine clause
• Henry VIII clause
• Horn clause
• in terrorem clause
• jurisdiction clause
• matrix clause
• multiclause
• negative clause
• no-trade clause
• notwithstanding clause
• objective clause
• objects clause
• operative clause
• pedigree clause
• residuary clause
• semiclause
• small clause
• subject clause
• sunrise clause
• sunset clause
• supplementive clause
• testing clause
• that clause
• time clause
• weasel clause

 

Related terms

• close

Translations

grammar: group of words which include a subject and any necessary predicate

• Arabic: مُرَكَّبٌ إِسْنَادِيّ (murakkabun ʔisnādiyy)
• Bulgarian: подчинено изречение n (podčineno izrečenie)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 從句／从句 (zh) (cóngjù)

• Dutch: bijzin (nl) m
• Finnish: lauseke (fi)
• French: proposition (fr) f
• German: Nebensatz (de) m
• Hebrew: פסוקית (he) f (psukít)
• Hungarian: mellékmondat (hu)
• Irish: clásal m
• Italian: proposizione (it) f
• Japanese: 節 (ja) (せつ, setsu)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: гишүүн өгүүлбэр (gišüün ögüülber)

• Persian: فراکرد (farākard)
• Polish: zdanie składowe n
• Portuguese: oração (pt) f
• Scottish Gaelic: clàs m
• Tagalog: sugnay

grammar: verb along with a subject and modifiers

• Arabic: جُمْلَة (ar) f (jumla)
• Armenian: նախադասություն (hy) (naxadasutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: cümlə (az)
• Catalan: clàusula f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 分句 (zh) (fēnjù)

• Dutch: nevenschikking (nl) f, bijzin (nl) m
• Finnish: lause (fi)
• French: proposition (fr) f
• German: Teilsatz (de) m
• Hungarian: tagmondat (hu)
• Irish: clásal m
• Japanese: 節 (ja) (せつ, setsu)
• Norman: proposition f
• Portuguese: oração (pt) f
• Russian: предложе́ние (ru) n (predložénije) (also: sentence)
• Scottish Gaelic: clàs m
• Swedish: sats (sv) c
• Tagalog: sugnay
• Turkish: cümlecik (tr)

legal: separate part of a contract

• Arabic: بَنْد m (band)
• Armenian: հոդված (hy) (hodvac)
• Bulgarian: клауза (bg) f (klauza), параграф (bg) m (paragraf)
• Catalan: clàusula f
• Danish: klausul c
• Dutch: clausule (nl) f
• Finnish: ehto (fi), sopimusehto, klausuuli (fi)
• French: clause (fr) f
• German: Klausel (de) f
• Greek: ρήτρα (el) f (rítra), όρος (el) m (óros)
• Hebrew: סעיף (he) m (seíf)
• Hungarian: záradék (hu), klauzula (hu), (section of a legal document) cikkely (hu), paragrafus (hu),
• Ido: klauzo (io)
• Irish: clásal m, foráil f, agús m
• Italian: clausola (it) f
• Polish: klauzula (pl) f
• Portuguese: cláusula (pt) f, artigo (pt) m
• Spanish: cláusula (es) f
• Swedish: klausul (sv) c
• Ukrainian: пункт (punkt), стаття (uk) (stattja)
• Vietnamese: điều khoản (vi)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Icelandic: ^{(please verify)} setning (is) f
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} clausa
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} oración (es) f

Verb

clause (third-person singular simple present clauses, present participle clausing, simple past and past participle claused)

1. (transitive, shipping) To amend (a bill of lading or similar document).
   • 1970, Asian-African Legal Consultative Committee, Report of the session, number 11:

     The question of clausing the bills of lading, so as to avoid "dirtying", which impairs its negotiability, may also be looked into

   • 1978, Samir Mankabady, The Hamburg rules on the carriage of goods by sea, page 215:

     Any attempt to clause a Bill of Lading will be strenuously resisted by shippers, and they will obtain clean bills in the usual ways

   • 1990, Alan Mitchelhill, Bills of lading: law and practice:

     It was held that the bills of lading presented were in this case 'clean' as they contained no reservations by way of endorsement, clausing or otherwise to suggest that the goods were defective

   • 2004, Martin Dockra with Katherine Reece Thomas, Cases & materials on the carriage of goods by sea, page 104:

     There is little authority in English law dealing with the liability of a carrier who unnecessarily clauses a bill of lading.

Further reading

• “clause”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “clause”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Caelus, secula

French

Etymology

From Old French clause, borrowed from Medieval Latin clausa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kloz/

Noun

clause f (plural clauses)

1. clause

Further reading

• “clause”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Participle

clause

1. vocative masculine singular of clausus

Middle English

Alternative forms

• clawse, claus

Etymology

From Old French clause, from Medieval Latin clausa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈklau̯z(ə)/

Noun

clause (plural clauses)

1. sentence, clause
2. statement, line (of a text)
3. writing, text, document, letter
4. A section or portion of a text; a part of a series of quotes
5. (law) A clause, term, or consideration; a section in a legal document.

Descendants

• English: clause

References

• “clause, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-23.